Although the basic function of footwear is protection of a person's feet, shoes are most often viewed and purchased only with regard to fashion. For example, a person selects a particular pair of shoes to enhance and/or complement clothing worn and when the person changes clothing, since a single color and/or style of shoes will not match all colors and/or styles of clothing he/she, more often than not, must select another pair of shoes, Thus, in order to be fashionably dressed, a person must own many pairs of shoes.
Unfortunately, owning multiple pairs of shoes can be very expensive in terms of both cost and storage space. Footwear that is compatible with many styles of clothing would alleviate these disadvantages by reducing the number of pairs of shoes a person must own, thereby also freeing up storage space. An example of such footwear is shoes having interchangeable components including interchangeable upper referred to as vamps.
While other shoes systems have existed incorporating detachable vamps, none of the prior art provide an interchangeable vamp that is well suited when the vamp is made of relatively soft or flexible materials including, by way of example only, neoprene, rubber or other polymer materials. While such materials are particularly useful in that they are comfortable, relatively inexpensive to manufacture, capable of easy decoration by various techniques including but not limited to silkscreening and thereby capable of taking on a wide variety of styles and appearances, and, further, are interchangeable across a variety of differently sized base members, they suffer from the drawback that when affixed by means of mechanical snaps, hook-and-loop systems or otherwise similar fasteners, the lower edge of the vamp tends to gather, bunch or pull out of alignment with the edge of the base member. In other words, the edge of the vamp does not remain in a line with the peripheral edge of the base member and therefore the aesthetic appearance of the shoe is compromised.
Previous attempts to resolve this issue have failed as the need to utilize an edging having appropriate characteristics has heretofore been unknown in the art. Thus where satin finished webbing material such as the Black Polypropelene Material, Part #N00881 1″, manufactured by the Steed Co. has been employed, the edging fails to ameliorate or prevent the tendency of the vamp to gather, bunch or pull out of alignment.
The edging must therefore be of a certain stiffness and rigidity capable of adequately securing the vamp to the base while preventing the unsightly tendency of the vamp to be pulled out of alignment. The edging, furthermore, when the same or similar color as the base member, may also serve the further aesthetic purpose of producing the appearance of a seamless transition between vamp and base member. Alternatively the edging may be of a color to accent or otherwise improve the aesthetic appearance of the shoe. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a shoe having an interchangeable vamp which is readily affixed in a secure manner to the base member without compromising the aesthetic appeal of the shoe.